South Hunterdon softball season preview

Senior Jasmine Assad, here firing one in against Warren Tech last spring, will again be South Hunterdon High’s ace pitcher this year. ( (Photo by George Pacciello/staff photographer))

WEST AMWELL TWP. — Not a whole lot of high school softball games are decided by 1-0 scores, so when Holly Abitz took the reins as South Hunterdon’s head coach this spring, she wanted to make certain her Eagles were ready to handle the challenge of pulling out a few slugfests here and there.

“You can have a decent defense,” she said Sunday afternoon, “but offense certainly wins the games. So I’ve been spending quite a bit of time teaching them strong mechanics as far as hitting. We devote a lot of time to batting practice — at least three days a week at an hour-and-a-half each — and I think it’s making a difference.”

South Hunterdon, which went 13-8 overall and 6-6 in the Skyland Conference’s Valley Division a year ago, was to start finding out for sure this week. After winning all three of their scrimmages, the Eagles were scheduled to open the season Monday against Pennsylvania’s Solebury School and then were to host division opponents North Warren (Tuesday) and Bernards (Thursday).

The Eagles will no doubt miss the superb bat of Tori Smiegocki, who earned Hunterdon County Democrat first-team All-County honors last year after hitting .431 with 15 extra-base hits and 32 runs batted in as a senior.

But SHHS does appear to have its share of quality hitters back among eight returning varsity players, including senior pitcher/shortstop Jasmine Assad, who batted .517 last season and was a first-team All-Skyland-Valley selection, and classmate Kelly Albanir, who’ll patrol center field and will likely be in the cleanup slot in the order.

Among the other Eagles who may contribute heavily on offense are sophomore leftfielder Jessica MacGregor, who went 8 for 22 (.364) at the plate in 2011, soph first baseman Megan Donnelly (.271, 10 RBI last spring), senior second baseman Danielle Lelie (.269, honorable mention All-Valley) and junior third baseman Roxanne Kreider (.323).

Flanking Albanir in the outfielder will be MacGregor and senior Courtney Cole. Soph Kaycee Zelkovsky steps in at catcher replacing the graduated Amanda Nielsen, a defensive standout who hit .375 and was a first-team All-Valley choice in 2011.

Rounding out the 10-person varsity roster are soph shortstop/pitcher Amber Dey and senior rightfielder/first baseman Rachel Slovak, a newcomer to the squad.

With limited personnel numbers and depth — SHHS also has just 10 junior varsity players — Abitz realizes it’s necessary for some Eagles to be adept at playing several positions. That’s going to come in handy next week when two players will be absent because they’ll be away for the spring break.

“Not one of my girls will stay in just one position,” said Abitz, who played for some potent teams at Trenton’s McCorristin High. “I like the flexibility of having them be able to play more than one position, and I’ve been telling the girls to expect that, just in case, especially in the middle infield and outfield. When you need to fill in for a player, you can’t be teaching them that position all of a sudden.”

Assad, a righthander who’s been SHHS’s pitching ace the past two seasons, will again be in that role after starting most of last year’s 21 games. She had an 11-6 record with a 2.75 earned run average, striking out 123 batters and yielding a mere 17 walks in 117 innings.

However, Abitz indicated either Dey or Lelie, both of whom had brief shots at pitching in 2011, would probably pitch the opener against Solebury while Assad would likely be in the circle for the league games against North Warren and Bernards.

In any case, the Eagles are stressing a complete team concept this spring.

“It’s a team-oriented group, a team approach,” said Abitz. “I think we’ll have a pretty solid defense and we’ve been working hard on fundamentals and improving on all aspects of the game. Our motto is ‘Effort and attitude.’ Give your best effort and have a good attitude. We’re optimistic about the season.”